Article Archive - Card Breach
Alleged Ring Leader Extradited in $9.4m RBS WorldPay Heist
Card Fraud
August 2010
The Register reports that federal prosecutors say they have extradited one of the leaders of an international crime ring accused of hacking in to bank card processor RBS WorldPay and stealing more than $9.4m in a 12-hour period. Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, was recently brought to the US, after being arrested in Russia in March. On Friday, he appeared in federal court in Atlanta, where according to the Associated Press he pleaded not guilty to charges that included conspiracy, wire fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
International Hacker Arraigned After Extradition
August 2010
The Atlanta office of the FBI announced that an international hacker was arraigned after extradition from Estonia for his involvement in an elaborate scheme that stole over $9.4 million from a credit card processor. United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of the case, “In November 2008, in just one day, an American credit card processor was hacked in perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted. Almost exactly one year later, the leaders of this attack were charged. With cooperation from law enforcement partners around the world, and most particularly in Estonia, we have now extradited to Atlanta one of the leaders of this ring.
New Fraud Spree Investigated
August 2010
Bank Info Security notes the arrests of two men in Florida on multiple identity theft charges represent "just the tip of the iceberg" in payment card crimes against merchants and consumers across the U.S., according to law enforcement officials. While these two suspects aren't believed to be the masterminds behind the string of fraud incidents that have hit retail chains such as Hancock Fabrics, the spike in the number of these crimes is undeniable, investigators and fraud analysts sa
Breaches Down, Insider Attacks Up, Verizon Business/Secret Service Study Says
Card Data Breaches
July 2010
Dark Reading, a part of TechWeb, a unit of United Business Media (UBM), reports the number of records compromised in major data breaches dropped sharply last year, according to a new study recently issued. But the causes of those breaches changed dramatically, shifting strongly toward insider attacks.
Those are just two of the conclusions revealed in the 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, a study that has been conducted annually by the forensics unit of Verizon Business, and this year combines Verizon's data with breach data compiled by the U.S. Secret Service.
Heartland Update: Judge's Ruling Awaited
July 2010
Bank Info Security reports on a class action suit brought against Heartland Payment Systems by financial institutions impacted by the 2009 data breach. At issue is whether this case will move forward against Heartland Payment Systems and its two acquiring banks. In January, five financial institutions filed a class action suit alleging that two acquiring banks, Heartland Bank and Key Bank, should be included as defendants and share responsibility for damages caused by the Heartland Payment Systems data breach, which impacted an estimated 130 million credit and debit cards.
Cyberthieves Find Workplace Networks Are Easy Pickings
July 2010
USA Today reports It took only a modicum of skill for a cybergang to steal 94 million credit and debit card payment records from the TJX retail chain — and follow that up by hauling in 130 million records from credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems. Court records reveal that those record-setting break-ins were almost too easy. Even more surprising: The thieves were able to take their sweet time extracting the data, in each case going undetected for more than a year.
Vishing Scam Hits Rural Regions
July 2010
Tracy Kitten at Bank Info Security reports two vishing attacks likely perpetrated by the same scammers, hit several Provo, Utah, residents this week. One automated-phone message called consumers, claiming their debit cards had been closed. The other attack targeted residents in the same region, purporting to be a call about service disconnection from the Rocky Mountain Power company, which provides electricity to Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.
Facebook for Hackers Shut Down in Pakistan
July 2010
John Leyden at the Register reports five alleged hackers have been arrested by the Pakistani authorities in raids that led to the closure the Pakbugs hacking and carding forum. Police seized computer equipment during the arrests of the five suspects. A Pakistani government press statement explains that the suspects are thought to have expertise in a range of cybercrime techniques, including botnet management, phishing and carding. Pakbugs.com was allegedly a full service cybercrime forum that offered a venue to discuss hacking techniques and a marketplace for the sale malware code, bank logins and stolen credit card numbers.
Credit Card Hackers Visit Hotels All Too Often
July 2010
The New York Times reports that there is something that the struggling hotel sector prefers not to spotlight: it is a favorite target of hackers. A study released this year by SpiderLabs, found that 38 percent of the credit card hacking cases last year involved the hotel industry. The sector was well ahead of the financial services industry (19 percent), retailing (14.2 percent), and restaurants and bars (13 percent). Why hotels? Well, to paraphrase the bank robber Willie Sutton, hackers hit hotels because that is where the richest vein of personal credit card data is.
37 Financial Institution Breaches So Far in 2010
June 2010
The Identity Theft Resource Center reports as of June 22 there have been 352 data breaches identified in 2010. Thirty-seven of the breaches have been perpetrated against financial institutions, including four credit unions. The ITRC compiles data breaches confirmed by various media sources and/or notification lists from state governmental agencies. The list is updated daily, and published each Tuesday.
Blippy’s Response to Credit Card Data Breach: “It’s a Lot Less Bad Than It Looks”
June 2010
Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch.com reports VentureBeat detailed a major Blippy privacy breach that exposed user credit card information to search engines. The breach appears to have occurred on a small scale — Blippy believes that only four users had their credit cards compromised — but the fact that it happened at all is unsettling. Blippy is a social-oversharing site, which lets members automatically post their purchases to the Internet for others to see.
Fraud Trends in 2010: Top Threats From a Growing Underground Economy
June 2010
First Data has published a white paper covering fraud threats that are expected to be particularly troublesome during the next 12 months. The white paper notes it is clear that today’s cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever in their operations and their attacks, and that they are always on the lookout for new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in the global payments system. According to the 2009 Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report, 285 million consumer records were compromised in 2008—more than the previous four years combined. Data breach statistics from 2009 are expected to be even more grim due to the growth of increasingly sophisticated attack methods such as malware infections, which grew tenfold in 2009.
Heartland Payment Systems® and MasterCard Agree to $41.4 Million Intrusion Settlement
May 2010
In a May 19 press release, Heartland Payment Systems said it has entered into a settlement agreement with MasterCard Worldwide to resolve claims from MasterCard and its issuers related to the 2008 criminal intrusion into Heartland's payment system environment. Under the agreement, alternative recovery offers totaling $41.4 million will be made to eligible MasterCard issuers with respect to losses alleged to have been incurred by them as a result of the criminal intrusion.
Copier Security: The Newest Loss Prevention Threat You’ve Never Heard Of
May 2010
Joe LaRocca writes in The National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Blog, “We have become accustomed to hearing about sophisticated hackers attempting to steal credit card, customer and employee information from POS and IT systems. Just a few weeks ago, CBS News ran a piece on copier security. If you haven’t heard about this issue already, prepare to fall out of your seat. The CBS investigation found that nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive, much like the one on your personal computer. These drives store images of every document copied, scanned, or emailed from the machine.”
Inside the TJX/Heartland Investigations
May 2010
Bank Info Security interviews Kim Peretti, former federal prosecutor regarding the TJX/Heartland data breaches. With the recent sentencing of the last of Albert Gonzalez' co-conspirators in the data breaches, a long, hard criminal investigation comes to a close. Kim Peretti, former senior counsel with the Department of Justice, offers an inside look at these investigations.
Albert Gonzalez Gets 20 Years for TJX / Heartland Breaches
April 2010
Gabreil M. Helmer of the Foley Hoag LLP, Security, Privacy and the Law web site writes, “Last week was a tough week for Albert Gonzalez, the so-called ‘leader of the largest hacking and identity theft ring ever prosecuted by the U.S. government.’" Gonzalez received a sentence of 20 years of imprisonment in two separate federal cases against him. The hacker pled guilty in the New Jersey and Massachusetts cases for his role as mastermind of the two largest financial data breaches ever, those involving TJX and Heartland Payment Systems.
More Heartland-Related Fraud Detected
April 2010
A Florida credit union must reissue 12,000 debit cards after new fraud attempts traced back to the Heartland Payment Systems data breach, as reported by Bank Info Security. The MidFlorida Federal Credit Union is taking this action, according to chief operating officer Kathy Britt, because of the continued risk of fraud. Britt says the $1 billion-asset, Lakeland, FL-based credit union already reissued new cards to about 5,000 of its members in 2009, after the breach was made public. Britt says the new replacements follow recent fraud attempts on cards involved in the Heartland breach. The credit union has about 80,000 debit card holders.
Ponemon Study Finds Average Cost of Data Breach Was $3.4 million in 2009
April 2010
The Ponemon Institute published for the first time their Global Cost of a Data Breach study in cooperation with PGP Corporation. The study examines actual costs incurred by companies as a result of discovering and responding to a data breach. Ponemon surveyed companies in the U.S., UK, Germany, Australia and France and found that in 2009, the average cost of a data breach was $3.4 million. That is $142 per customer affected by the breach. Costs in the U.S. have risen steadily from a 2005 average incident cost of $4.5 million to a 2009 cost of $6.65 million.
Russians Arrest 3 in RBS WorldPay Heist
April 2010
Bank Info Security reports Russian federal authorities this week arrested three suspects already indicted here in the U.S. for the RBS WorldPay heist. This brings hope that there will be justice meted out for the $9 million hack that stunned even the most knowledgeable law enforcement officials when it happened in November 2008. In the indictments handed down in Atlanta, Pleshchuk and Tsurikov were the accused leaders of the group of eight hackers. The group allegedly infiltrated RBS WorldPay's network and broke the encryption around the company's payroll debit cards.
Heartland Hacker to be Sentenced
March 2010
“The most notorious hacker in history,” as described by Bank Info Security, will be sentenced this week for the Heartland Payment Systems, TJX and other major data breaches. Albert Gonzales may face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. In an ironic twist after his first arrest in 2003, Gonzales worked as a government informant turning in fellow hackers, while maintaining his criminal contacts and planning hacks into multiple companies.
JCPenney Joins Heartland, TJX as Gonzalez victims
March 2010
SC Magazine reports that two more retailers can be added to the list of companies targeted in the credit card crime ring orchestrated by Albert Gonzalez, who last week received the largest-ever U.S. prison sentence for a hacker. Major U.S. department store chain JCPenney and women's clothing retailer Wet Seal can now be included among the companies targeted by Gonzalez and his crew, best known for their compromises of Heartland Payment Systems and TJX, parent of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.
22 Financial Institution Breaches So Far in 2010
March 2010
The Identity Theft Resource Center reports as of March 23 there have been 182 data breaches identified in 2010. Twenty-two of the breaches have been perpetrated against financial institutions, including at least two credit unions. The ITRC compiles data breaches confirmed by various media sources and/or notification lists from state governmental agencies. The list is updated daily, and published each Tuesday.
Hacker Gonzalez Pleads Guilty to 20 Charges
September 2009
PC World reports Hacker Albert Gonzalez, accused of masterminding the massive data thefts at BJ's Wholesale Club, TJX and several other retailers, has pleaded guilty to 19 charges related to computer hacking and credit card fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, was a member of a group of hackers that stole more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from TJX, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. In August, Gonzalez was also indicted in New Jersey for the theft of more than 130 million credit and debit cards from Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey card payment processor; 7-Eleven, the Texas-based convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers, a Maine-based supermarket chain.
‘The Analyzer’ Hack Probe Widens; $10 Million Allegedly Stolen From U.S. Banks
March 2009
Wired’s Threat Level reports Ehud Tenenbaum, an Israeli hacker arrested in Canada last year for allegedly stealing about $1.5 million from Canadian banks, also allegedly hacked two U.S. banks, a credit and debit card distribution company and a payment processor in what U.S. authorities are calling a global "cashout" conspiracy. The U.S. hacks have resulted in at least $10 million in losses, according to court records obtained by Threat Level, and are just part of a larger international conspiracy to hack financial institutions in the United States and abroad.
